On Call
by stringsofwords09
Summary: A.U. where Mary is an ObGyn doctor who has to deliver Isobel's baby, and meets Bash.
1. Chapter 1

"Paging: OB-GYN resident on call to the Emergency Room."

Dr. Mary Stuart sat up straight in the top bunk of a small wire bed in the resident on call room, wincing painfully as she banged her head on the ceiling.

"Are they seriously over-head paging me right now?" she muttered in annoyance, rubbing the top of her head. The sleeping resident in the bed underneath her stirred lightly, but kept on snoozing. Mary grabbed her pager, quickly thumbing through the night's calls. But there was no recent page. She groaned.

She climbed down from the bed quietly, careful not to step on her colleague's fingers, and threw on her lab coat. It was a nuisance, that coat. The pockets were heavy with gauze, loose packets of lubricant and disposable gloves, a mini obstetrics manual, and of course, some spare change for the vending machine.

"Where is Greer?" she whispered aloud, glancing at her cell. There were no missed calls there either.

"Tell Greer I say 'hey'," the sleeping doctor said groggily. Mary grinned, and threw one of her pillows at him. "Tell her yourself, Leith. And doesn't Urology have it's own call room. You're sleeping in my usual spot, you know."

"The ortho call room is under renovations, so those guys took over our space. Your team is never in here anyway, so I helped myself."

"And you wanted to run into Greer, of course." But Leith just rolled over and snorted loudly at her.

This was only week one in her fourth and final year as an obstetrics and gynecology resident. She'd worked her butt off for three long years, and Chief Residents usually got some slack in their last year; limited on call days, only a few weekends… But it was an hour into her shift, so tonight was clearly off to a hectic start.

She waved bye to an already fast asleep Leith, and sprinted out the door. She ran past three nursing stations, nodding her hellos to familiar faces. Mary stepped into the doctor's lounge, where other doctors sat in their green scrubs cradling cups of hot beverages. "Greer!" she said loudly to a young blonde doctor fast asleep on the couch. The girl blinked her eyes open, and yawned. "Mary? Why are you awake at this hour?"

"There's an over head page from the ER, is your pager not working? My OB intern is supposed to respond _before _me," she said, staring pointedly at the small black gadget clipped to Greer's waist.

Greer frowned and shook her head. "No one paged me, Mary, I'm scheduled to scrub in for a D and C."

"You? Isn't Olivia covering Gyn tonight?" she asked in exasperation. There was a strict schedule between the obstetrics, gynecology, and emergency patients among the OB-GYN residents, but sometimes the young doctors were forced to cross cover when the patient load piled up.

"The Gyn team is slammed, as usual, and this patient was in a lot of pain. She's being prepped for the O.R. as we speak. I was taking a power nap."

Mary sighed, blowing a lock of hair out of her eyes. "So it's just me for the entire night, then. Okay. Good luck with your case. Tell Dr. Medici I say to make it_ quick,_ please!"

Greer smiled and closed her eyes again. "Thanks Mary. I'll page you when we finish."

"Yes!" Mary insisted, running out of the room.

"Paging: OB-GYN resident on call to the Emergency Room."

Mary jogged down the hall, taking the stairs two at a time down three flights. The elevators were too slow to wait for, even in a non-emergency. She burst through two sets of double doors, cut through the Pediatric emergency room, and headed straight to the nurse's station in the main adult E.R.

"Someone paged OB?" she called out. The head nurse, a tall, stern looking woman nodded and pointed down to cubicle twelve. "Lady in 12-A. Dr. L is the ER doc."

Mary pulled the curtain and stepped inside, spotting a curly haired doctor, named Lola, bent over a very pregnant brunette patient. "What do we got?" she asked.

Lola smiled at her, and Mary was thankful to see there were no signs of worry on her friend's face. A high risk patient was the last thing she needed right now. "Dr. Stuart, this is Isobel. She's seventeen years old, at thirty-eight weeks. She came in fifteen minutes ago when her water broke. She's having contractions, about eight minutes apart."

"Hi, Isobel, I'm Dr. Stuart, the OB doctor who will be taking of you tonight. You can call me Mary."

Isobel nodded shyly, and Mary immediately saw how frightened she looked. "Is there anyone else here with you, maybe your mum, or the baby's – "

"I'm here with her."

Mary looked behind her in surprise where a very handsome young gentleman stood. Had he been there the whole time? Doubtfully, since how could she have missed those green eyes, she could not even fathom. He looked as exhausted as Mary felt, but had an easy look about him. His hair was dark brown, shaggy, and looked more unkempt than Mary's disheveled braid. She self consciously tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear and stuck out her hand to him. "I'm Dr. Stuart, the OB resident working tonight. Are you the father?"

"What? No, Isobel is my family, we're cousins. I'm Bash. I came here as soon as I got word."

Mary liked how he said 'family,' it was in a warm, protective fashion. And, oddly, she felt relieved at his answer. Why…? But she shook it off. She had a job to do. "Well, Bash, if it's alright with Isobel, I need to ask her a few questions."

The girl nodded, looking more brave now that her cousin had arrived. "Bash can stay," she told Mary.

"I'll be back with an IV," Lola said, stepping out of the room. Mary looked over the paper chart, and chatted with Isobel about her medical history. Finally, she pulled out a clean pair of gloves, and was about to begin examining Isobel, when she remembered Bash. He stood off to the side, watching her work in silence. He looked…impressed?

He smiled at her. "Is something wrong?" he asked her curiously.

"I'm going to examine her… maybe you can step out?"

Bash started to walk toward the exit, but Isobel stopped him. "No, please don't leave Bash. Turn around, but stay. I don't want to be here alone."

"Don't be scared Isobel, I'm just checking to see how dilated your cervix is. It will be quick. No pain, just some pressure."

"I know," the girl said weakly. "But Bash keeps me calm."

Mary looked at him, his eyes were tired, but they flickered in amusement. "I'm the favorite cousin," he told Mary. "I'll be here for the long haul."

Mary shrugged, she was never one to argue with patients who had reasonable requests. "If you insist. But I'm warning you, things will get a little crazy."

"I'll have a front row seat, then."

"Push, Isobel, come on, the head is right here! I can feel it!"

Bash watched in a fascinated horror as his cousin screamed bloody murder at the young pretty doctor standing between her legs. Two nurses held Isobel's hands and legs, while one mopped her forehead with a damp towel. The floor was covered in blood. His job was to stand on the side, and be supportive, but he wasn't really sure what that meant.

He didn't want to get too close; Isobel was clearly squeezing the fingers off a very frightened medical student. And somehow, he thought videotape was not a good idea either. Childbirth, he decided, might be miraculous, but it was not something to be recorded in a digital format.

But Mary, well, Dr. Stuart, didn't seem to be fazed whatsoever. Her gown and scrubs were covered in fluid, and her long hair was artfully tucked under a blue cap. She was so composed, calmly instructing the staff around her in all the chaos, and did not once snap at Isobel. "Okay, I see another contraction is coming on the monitor, Isobel. You can do this! Push!" she called out again. Isobel moaned loudly, and Mary crouched forward, urging her on.

The tall, bald attending OB, Dr. Valois, stood off to the side, chatting about something Bash didn't understand with a short female pediatric resident. "Control studies are still in the works, Kenna," he was telling the other doctor. He wore a delivery gown and kept one eye on Mary as she worked. Mary had explained to Bash that as a resident, she would direct the labor, unless something went wrong. In that case, her senior would step in to control the show. But so far, Bash had to admit that Mary was handling everything splendidly.

It seemed like the whole night passed by, but it was barely even two hours. Bash finally heard the wonderful sound of a screeching baby, but then wrinkled his nose at the slimy, almost alien looking creature Mary handed to the pediatrician.

"Is it okay?" Isobel whispered timidly, straining her head to see.

"It's a girl, Isobel," Mary reassured her, "a healthy baby girl! We're cleaning her off, checking her out, weighing her, and then you can hold her." She gestured at Bash, urging him forward. "Come!" she insisted.

He stepped over a pool of…something, and stood next to the basinet. They weighed it – a whopping _nine_ pounds! – and bundled the baby up. She was all clean and pink now, and the other doctor swaddled her in a thin blanket. The crying finally stopped, and a thin tuft of light brown hair poked out from under the hospital cap.

"Would you like to hold her?" Mary asked him, carefully picking the baby up. "You can give her to Isobel."

Bash nodded, dumbfounded at how tiny the little tyke was. The baby was sucking furiously on Mary's gloved finger. She handed the bundle to him, and he cradled the baby in his arms. Its eyes were squeezed shut, and its little face was squashed into pink wrinkles. He thought she was beautiful.

"She likes you," Mary said, grinning at him. He looked at her thoughtfully, and nodded. "Yeah," he said, agreeing, "she knows I'm family."


	2. Chapter 2

2

She tugged at the drawstrings holding up her scrubs, and squirmed in her place. A heavyset woman in her fifties yammered on in front of her, and Mary struggled to pay attention. But the knot was too tight, and Mary _really_ needed to use the bathroom. Who's idea was it to down that extra large iced coffee at dinner?

Oh, right.

Hers.

"…and it really burns when I pee. Since two days ago, it's been like peeing hot tamales. And I'm a very healthy woman, mind you. I watch Dr. Oz, I have cranberry juice _every night._ That other doctor took a sample and said it was an infection? I didn't know that could happen! I drink a lot of water all the time." She took a breath, and continued on. "How old are you, by the way? You look too young to be a doctor."

Mary smiled vaguely, normally she would be up for schmoozing with a patient, but it was one a.m., and she was taking OB _and_ GYN call tonight. Small talk was not about to happen.

"I'm twenty eight. So when did you first notice the discomfort?"

"Two mornings ago. I thought it would go away. Why would this happen to me, miss? I also drink eight cups of water, don't you guys recommend that? I saw those commercials. You know, I bet this is all from the fitness club I go to! Ocean City? Between you and me, doc, they _never_ clean the pool."

Mary nodded vaguely and jotted something down onto her notepad. She really wished people would stop talking about water and oceans and swimming, when her bladder was about to burst.

"I'm going to go have a quick chat with your ER doctor," she told the patient with a caffeinated smile "and I'll be right back, okay?" The woman nodded seriously, and went back to playing with her cell phone.

Mary glanced at the computer chart readout of the labs. There was only a urine sample, but no culture. Was it pending? Nope. It was never ordered. She sighed and trudged back to the patient, wincing at the strain on her pelvis.

"I'm really sorry, miss, but it looks like the lab forgot to run one more test on your urine. The one that helps us narrow down the best medication for you. Would you mind giving me another sample of your pee?" She held out the clear plastic container, and the woman took it with a groan.

"I barely have any left," she complained. "It's not gushing out of me, you know."

* * *

He drummed his fingers on the roll away table, and mindlessly watched hospital staff scurry back in forth out in the hall. Isobel's room had glass doors, and people-watching became the only way to pass the time. Bash hated that the ICU had such little privacy. But he supposed it made it easier for the staff to keep an eye on their patients. Various staff members came in and out of Isobel's room on a regular basis. She was a 'very critical patient', he was told.

He wasn't bothered by the stay in the hospital. Isobel was like a little sister to him. Barely seventeen, and always quick to put him in his place. She looked up to him. And he wanted to be there for her.

But he had yet to have a proper discussion with her doctors; they were always so _busy._ He wanted to catch just one of them, for a quick chat. Even if it meant remaining at her bedside at all hours of the night.

Bash debated visiting his newborn baby cousin now. An elderly nurse in the nursery whispered to him that he could come by _any_ time. _Even after visiting hours are over,_ she'd whispered, which was most certainly now. She'd taken a liking to him.

_She probably thinks I'm the dad,_ he thought wryly.

The baby wasn't going anywhere, he would have time tomorrow. But he risked missing Isobel's doctor now. Or – dare he think it? – miss his chance to run into the young brunette obstetrician doctor from the night before.

Would any doctor even come by so deep into the night? He tried bargaining with himself. It was late, almost two a.m., and he'd been at her side since early this morning. Or, was it yesterday morning, maybe? It was hard to tell, he was to tired. Isobel was sleeping now, but he'd sat here for hours already after dinner, and _nothing._

"Hello!" said a sunny voice, in a loud whisper. Bash looked up in surprise at a girl who must have silently stepped inside the room as he was lost in his own head. The petite blonde smiled sweetly at him. She held a finger to her lips and pointed to her name tag.

_'Aylee, Registered Nurse' _it read.

"Hi," he said back quietly, "do you want me to step out?" He wanted her to say yes, he was hungry and in desperate need of a hot drink.

But she shook her head at him, and then busied herself with fussing over Isobel. She pulled the curtain around the two of them, so Bash was left to sit behind it, wedged between the cloth curtain and his favorite glass wall.

He peered out into the hall. It was the dead of the night, but you wouldn't even know it. The hallway was so brightly lit. Doctors in blue scrubs walked importantly through the halls like mother hens, with their little chicks in short lab coats trailing close behind. The bald doctor from the night before paused briefly by Isobel's room and then murmured words to the doctor next to him that Bash couldn't quite make out.

A sandy haired boy, who looked rather unsure of himself, tiptoed into the room and glanced over a chart near the bed.

"I'm Charles, a medical student!" the boy squeaked out, obviously nervous. "I'm just recording some vitals from earlier. I'll be back with a resident to check on her after we round!"

And then he sped out of the room before Bash could register the words into his sleep deprived brain. Aylee yanked the curtains apart sharply, peering out with a wrinkled forehead. "Some of the students don't have a stitch of bedside manner," she said very rudely, for such a tiny person. Bash just nodded in agreement and made a mental note not to cross her in the future.

When the nurse was finished, Bash took a quick glance at his cousin. She was still snoozing. He sighed, and kissed Isobel lightly on her forehead. "See you at breakfast?" she murmured sleepily to him. "I'll be back in a few," he whispered. "Tell her I say hello, and thank you. And that you think she's pretty," she suggested, her eyes still closed. "I'm just grabbing a quick drink," he protested.

"Not if you're driving back," she chided him, her words now slurred again with sleep. Sebastian just chuckled.

* * *

_At last._

Mary walked out of the elevator, some pep in her step, and thrilled to have finished with E.R. patient so quickly. It was a garbage case for GYN; the emergency room could easily handle a urinary tract infection without calling for a consult. But, she suspected that the easily irritated attending down there had lost his temper with the nosy patient. Mary couldn't blame him. She had twenty follow up questions for every breath Mary took.

She walked quickly down the hall. She had one post operative patient to take a peek at before finding a scrubs machine. She also had to find some shears; the knot in her pants was too tight and she was going to have to cut them off if she wanted to finally pee...

She pictured herself curling up into bed and smiled, not noticing the green eyed man in front of her, cradling something in his hands, and not really looking in front of him.

"Oof!" Mary shouted, as she walked straight into a solid person, and a hot liquid sprayed down the front of her scrubs. She looked down in horror; for a second she thought she peed her pants.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry!"

Mary looked up, and found she knew the face of the perpetrator. It was the kind eyed man from the night before, a relative of her high risk delivery patient. She blanched, her feet felt like rubber.

Did. She. Just. _Empty her bladder._ In _public._ In front of the _hottest specimen she'd come across in four years of residency?_

"Hello," he told her shyly, unaware of her inner turmoil. Was he _blind?_ She sniffed the air for the scent of urine. Nothing.

"I'm truly sorry about this, I should have watched where I was going, especially with a hot drink…"

Mary looked back up at him. Color returned to her face as she registered the empty cup he was holding.

"Oh!" she managed to say, blinking in surprise.

The dark nature of her usually blue scrubs hinted that it was just warm coffee she was soaked in. Not urine. She sniffed the air again, and finally took in the welcoming scent of her favorite drink.

He looked at her, rather curious now, with a hint of confusion in his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked, "the drink wasn't too hot…" He awkwardly patted at her scrubs with a scrunched up napkin with light dabs. "I fell asleep in the cafeteria drinking it," he admitted. "So it shouldn't have burned you. I hope you're not hurt. Again, I'm really sorry…"

Mary held up her hand, and took the tissue from him. She couldn't help but laugh out loud. Her relief of not having urinated on herself was too much to take. It was late. She was sleep deprived. And he smelled deliciously like caffeine.

"Bash, is it? Don't apologize. I just have to get cleaned up. There are clean scrubs on every floor."

He nodded, looking utterly relieved. Much like she felt, she mused. She realized he was trying to glance anywhere but at her sopping scrubs. It suddenly occurred to Mary that she was in control of the situation. Bash felt helpless, and didn't know what to say.

"Can I…buy you a new cup of coffee?" she tried, mentally crossing her fingers.

Bash just stared, and Mary blushed. "Ah, well, after I change, of course."

"I'd love it," he agreed sheepishly. "I'll keep it in my cup this time. I promise."


End file.
